When you get off the interstate and ride over it into Black Mountain, you notice over on the left the old brick buildings that make up the "downtown" situated right on the railroad track, with an old depot a few blocks down. When you park somewhere to have a look-see, you notice a few mountains in the distance, and then you notice the architecture of the very old buildings, and then all sorts of folk wandering up and down the roughly five-block by five-block area. The shops are all interesting, homemade mountain crafts, books, antiques, gift shops, a couple watering holes, an old hardware store that's got a lot of amazing stuff in there. Just eyond the perimeter of the town proper are studios for potters, artists, woodworkers and such, and some cafes. Lots of people travel from Asheville regularly to hear the top-name bands that come to town in the evenings.
If you get back in your car and drive the main drag north, you wind around and up a moderately steep grade, past nice little neighorhoods, and then you enter this kind of forested area, with a big stone gate marked "Montreat," and all the buildings up there are also stone, and all of a sudden there's this medium-sized lake, with buildings overlooking it and a walking bridge, and folks are canoeing in it. They have a grassy campus and a church, plus all the trees.
If you turn around and go back to town, and then head west behind the village a few blocks, and turn right up to Tomahawk Lake, there's woods and the lake on your left, and a very nice elevated neighborhood on your right, which would be a wonderful place to live, and you park down by the tennis courts. If you walk all the way around the lake, at the apex, there's a bench, and you sit down, and you can see the "Seven Sisters," which are seven mountain peaks to the north, one right after the other, the view is impressive. People walk along there, some with dogs, it's a nice wide paved pathway. Beyond is the acres of golf greens.
The whole effect of the town is it's old-fashioned, lots of trees, views everywhere, very small town, dropped out of heaven right into the middle of these beautiful mountains. And it's just 20 minutes or so from downtown Asheville, which has everything that you need that a small town can't give you. Black Mountain is a quiet, natural, peaceful beauty, the epitome of a small North Carolina mountain town.
Here's a website with some pictures:
www.blackmountain.org
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